South Sudan IDP Inflow Causes Serious Overcrowding at UN Protection Site

A South Sudanese shelter for internally displaced people is severely overcrowded as a result of an inflow of additional residents. More than 37,000 people now live in the camp, which was meant to hold only 12,000. It is guarded by U.N. forces, and thousands of people continue to leave Upper Nile state because of the conflict.

Fighting between two armed factions in Upper Nile state, in northern South Sudan, is what caused the inflow.

Over 4,000 people have been killed in the months-long violence that has plagued the communities in the Kodok and Fashoda regions. There are now 20,000 more homeless people.

Paul Awan, who is in charge of helping people in the Upper Nile state, says that what is happening is like a massacre happening during floods.

“There is a lot of death; children drowning is a common occurrence, and when someone dies, it takes hours to gather the bodies,” the man stated. The saddest aspect is that the bush is being burned, and now there are bodies in the water and the bush.

Lucia Oluok and other helpless bystanders get caught in the crossfire. Oluok claimed that in order to reach safety, she and her eight children had to walk for seven days.

Some people were unable to flee. For instance, Weda Jerim abandoned her hurt spouse.

She claimed that she fled into the wilderness, where there was no water or food, without knowing where she was headed. There is nowhere to sleep, she claimed, so she and others sit under trees. She stated that they had been in the bush for five months.

The growing number of civilians running away from the conflict is putting a strain on the resources at the UN Protection of Civilians Site in the town of Malakal.

Malakal’s protective camp, which had a 12,000-person capacity, is currently three times that number. Those who cannot be housed here are being pressured to cross into Sudan, which is nearby and already hosts a large number of refugees.

One thousand people, according to Charlotte Hallqvist, a UNHCR external relations officer in South Sudan, have entered the camp in the previous week. Schools in the camp are being used by the newcomers, but she claimed that these are already full.

Many items are lacking in the camps, it is claimed. Armed violence and impassable roads have hindered humanitarian deliveries. She claimed that desperate people were looking for safety in the riverside communities. Flooding makes it challenging to escape certain regions, and she claimed that in order to get to safety, evacuees require canoes.

South Sudan’s humanitarian community has been very critical of the fighting in Upper Nile State. They say that the fighting makes it hard for partners to help people who have been forced to leave their homes because of the fighting.